Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Chapter 3

Jesse gritted his teeth and forced himself to turn away from the many eyes that were staring at him, all of them with a different facial expression - some looked almost pleading, some determined, others just plain scared.

These were his friends. But it was more than that. They were Jaden's friends.

And that had led them to this.

Jesse had gotten to the portal and had looked up at it - stable. At least, it looked that way, and without the assistance of his spirits, Jesse had no better way of accessing it than his own eyesight.

He had been just about to walk into the shining light - it didn't even look so dangerous here, and yet a gloomy cloud swirled above, triggering warning bells in Jesse's mind.

Before he could step into that portal, however, a hand had grabbed his shoulder roughly and pulled him back. Startled, Jesse turned around to see Jim standing there with Axel beside him. As he stared at the faces of the two duellists, his other friends - Alexis, Atticus, Chazz, Syrus, Bastian, and Hasselberry - had come up behind them.

Jesse was a bit irritated to realise that Bastian and the professor's finding of the portal had led to them coming to see if Jesse was okay and if he had noticed it - they knew what Jaden would do in this situation, and Jesse was so much like him that they weren't taking any chances. Finding his room empty, they had rushed here to see if he was here.

Not to mention that a few of them had already wondered if they could go through the portal to get Jaden back. After all, he was a good friend to all of them. None of them wanting to let him go like this.

Jesse least of all.

He knew he couldn't argue with them now. He had no way of forcing them to stay in their own world, and he couldn't argue with them endlessly because he knew that time was running out.

"Guys, please" he whispered.

Not one of them spoke, but he knew that their silence meant they didn't care what he thought, rather than that they knew he was right.

"You have no deck, Jess" Jim's voice said calmly. "We're not letting you go running off on your own."

"All for one and one for all" Alexis said.

Syrus and Hasselberry looked at each other and nodded together - Jesse knew that they had silently agreed that they were, no matter what, going to find Jaden and bring him back.

Jesse knew he couldn't stop them.

And he didn't have time to try.

He turned around again, whispering a quiet thanks, unsure if they would actually hear him but willing to bet that they would.

Jesse stared up at the portal and gulped. Then, taking a deep breath, he took two steps forward and into the portal.

After those steps, Jesse didn't know what was happening.

It felt like he was falling, and not in a nice way. There was a strong current of air pushing against his body but he was falling fast, and he knew that he wasn't alone - from his position he could see Axel and Jim behind him, and two more figures in the distance - from the look of it, Chazz and Syrus.

They were all following him. He didn't know why it surprised him.

They had all - save for Jim and Axel - known Jaden longer than he had. He knew that Syrus and Hasselberry looked up to the brunette, that Chazz saw him as a duelling rival, that Alexis possibly had a crush on him.

But to Jesse, he was closer to Jaden than all of them.

Because there was a difference between caring for someone like a friend or just a crush - it wasn't as strong as love. Just that one little word, the one that held so much raw power that it forced people into doing amazing and miraculous things.

Love.

He knew that people had been said to have been blinded by love. But he wasn't going to let it happen to him.

He was going to stay focused, one hundred percent at attention, and he was going to find his cards, his family.

And he was going to find Jaden.

Please R&R